December Advent

So tearing a page out of my friend Laura’s playbook again, I took on the December advent calendar of activities this year. It has been a fun thing for us and we look forward to our activity everyday. It is really fun watching Owen be so excited about Christmas this year. Each day we write what we did on a card, and put it in the advent calendar pocket.
Here are a few highlights of our advent this year...

Decorating the House:

Buying Gifts for Friends/Family and then Wrapping Presents:

Making Ornaments (various days):

Christmas Party:
We love having our little friends over for a cookie and ornament decorating party. Sadly, this year there were no pictures... sigh. But I did snap this shot of the kids the night before helping me bake all the cookies.

Owen’s Tree: the second photo was taken by Owen. And Olivia’s Tree

Nativity: we have a tiny nativity for the kids and we let them arrange and rearrange it to their hearts content.

Christmas Puppets: there were lots of crafts this year, which we love. I even have a dedicated Christmas craft bucket. :)

Making Snowflakes: he did the folding, I did the cutting.

Picking out New Ornaments: Rudolph was Owen’s pick and “chicken” was Olivia’s.

Live Nativity: our annual Christmas Eve tradition at the Puzeys.

Reading Christmas Stories:

Matching PJs:

Pictures with Santa: Owen told Santa he wanted an “awesome marble track” for Christmas, and Olivia just stared.

Owen’s Christmas List:
next year I am going to send it to Santa. This year he didn’t want to, but I found Santa’s address: 1 Santa Claus Lane  North Pole, AK 

Utah

This Christmas one of the things I was grateful for was Utah. Not just because we got to go and visit our family there, but also because Owen has been asking me every day in December when it is going to snow. In every Christmas book and movie there is snow, and he was just waiting for it to appear here, in Atlanta. Poor kid. So if it doesn’t snow at your house, going to Nana and Papa’s house where it DOES snow is great!
We headed to Utah on the 26th and celebrated Christmas with the Andersons. We had great fun and were able to spend time with Nate’s parents, all of his siblings, and Sarah and Andrew. :) We had a great time and loved seeing everyone.
















Owen and Olivia were THRILLED that there were more gifts to be opened and Owen had a great time playing in Nana and Papa’s back yard in the snow with his cousins Emma and Gavin. I honestly didn’t know if he would last 10 minutes out there in the cold, but he played for about an hour each time! I had to buy hats and gloves for the kids for Christmas (since we don’t use them a whole lot here in Georgia) and they only had rain boots or running shoes to wear. I didn’t have any snow pants. Honestly I am amazed he lasted to long out there! But he had a great time and there was always a cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows to be had once inside from the cold. :)











































We were also lucky enough to celebrate Elanore’s birthday while were were visiting Utah. She turned 2 years old on the 30th! Happy Birthday Ella! :)














We went to visit Temple Square and see all the lights. I am amazed at how wimpy I have become in the cold, but we were out there for about 45 minutes in the snow. Not bad. :)
Thanks Andersons for your generosity and for all the good memories!

Merry Christmas

This Christmas was a LOT of fun. We had a fun December with our daily advent activities, and on Christmas Eve we headed up to the Puzeys to celebrate! We had our traditional dinner of Autumn Chowder and Spinach Salad with our favorite treats for dessert. The kids performed the Nativity for us again, under Morgan’s direction. Great job Morgan! :)

















Doug read the kids some Christmas Stories before bed.












We got our kids bundled up in matching Christmas PJs and in bed and then finished some last minute wrapping.













We woke up on Christmas morning and had a lot of fun opening presents! Santa brought Owen an “awesome marble track” per his specific request, and Olivia got a baby doll. It was so much fun to see everyone enjoy their gifts and play with them all day on Christmas. Everyone wore their new clothes and we made Ebelskivers and Norweigan pancakes for breakfast. I love Christmas day!

Chicken

While Christmas shopping this year Olivia disappeared down one of the bedding aisles and reappeared clutching this little stuffed penguin in her arms. She brought it to me exclaiming, “Chicken!” as she walked back towards me. I thought it was so cute that I bought it and then gave it to her for Christmas. She is still just as thrilled every time she sees “Chicken” and it is her new favorite thing to snuggle with when going to sleep. We have since discovered that anything with an orange beak is a “Chicken” in Olivia’s world. She has snuggled the orange beak right off his little face. :)
When we went shopping for Christmas ornaments with the kids at target, amazingly, they had a “Chicken” ornament, which you can check out here. For obvious reasons, she was drawn to the ornament and we bought it for her this year.
We love “Chicken”!